Friday, July 31, 2009

Note to Readers: I received the following comment yesterday and thought it was worthy of its own post. Many thanks to “White Cop”.

Honestly, can't believe I am going to post a comment here, but for the first time I feel I might have something to contribute. Before I comment, here's some background on me. I am a police officer in a major urban city in the South, and I am white. I was born in an all white family, raised in a pre-dominantly white neighborhood, and grew up with almost all white friends through high school and college. I am fairly well-educated, and considered pursuing post-graduate studies, but found myself drawn to police work, in particular, criminal investigation. Throughout my life, I never once considered I might have any underlying racial biases. However, it wasn't until I became a cop that I found my own cultural biases tested. It was then that I realized, like every other flawed human being on this earth, I, because of my cultural upbringing, have prejudices. I was always taught that racism is bad, but I also never had any real, meaningful exposure to cultures outside my own. Working alongside white, black, Hispanic, and Vietnamese cops, in a profoundly multi-cultural city, I quickly realized I knew next to nothing about the daily lives and struggles of other ethnic communities. Disturbed by this, I started seeking out forums where these topics are discussed. One day I heard a round-table discussion on National Public Radio featuring several African American bloggers, one of whom was Mr. Collier. I was intrigued by his perspective, since the mainstream media prefers to feature the rhetoric of screaming protesters instead of thoughtful, honest discussion. I began following this blog, "Acting White," to hear Mr. Collier's opinion on racial news topics. I have found Mr. Collier to be exceptionally even-handed and honest on topics of racial discrimination in America. I don't want to sound like a kiss-up here... it's simply true, that when the mainstream media is your only source for commentary on racial issues in America, one typically hears only extremist opinions.

That's enough about me though. I'm not perfect by any stretch, but I try to be honest and just in my life and law enforcement career.

I have read the on-line version of Crowley's arrest narrative of Gates; however, I wasn't there, so I know about as much as anyone else. Speaking as a cop, I can say that Crowley is completely justified in his actions, up until the moment he chose to make the arrest. When dispatched to a possible burglary at a habitation, the first thing you do is read the notes given to you by dispatch. You don't know who has called 9-1-1 and you don't have time to question the caller about the details. You have to move fast to try and catch a burglar, if in fact there is an actual burglary taking place. As soon as you arrive, you start looking for suspects as described by the caller who might be leaving the area already. If no one is located outside, you then go to the residence to look for signs of a burglary. It is my understanding that Crowley arrived and saw an open front door. If that is the case, you then approach and look to see if there is anyone inside. Upon seeing someone inside, you contact them, and, depending on the situation, detain them either verbally or physically. You then request identification to determine who the person is. You have no way of knowing if that person is the homeowner until you have somehow verified their identification. Once you verify that the person is the homeowner, and that there appears to be no offense, you explain the 9-1-1 call, leave, and clear out the call. It's a pretty simple formula, and I have conducted such cursory investigations numerous times. 99 times out of 100, the home owner is completely cooperative of the investigation, regardless of their race. Usually, on the way out the door, they thank you for doing your job and for trying to catch a possible burglar at their residence.

However, there is the odd case where the person you encounter, the homeowner, for whatever reason, is completely unreasonable. From the moment of first contact, the person simply flies off the handle. In cases of inter-racial contacts, it is not uncommon for the word "racist" to be thrown around. I can personally attest that for a white cop who is simply trying to do a good job, there is nothing more insulting and aggravating, than to be suddenly and publicly accused of racism where clearly none is present. In the past, I have been able to diffuse these situations by stopping and explaining the details of the 9-1-1 call (in cases where I believed this was an appropriate step). However, believe it or not, there are people out there who don't care what your reasons may be. Possibly because of some past mistreatment by someone else, or because of unexplained paranoia, they don't let you explain, they simply yell in anger.

Now, I don't know Mr. Gates personally, so I cannot speak for his character. But I can sympathize with Crowley's indignation at Mr. Gates' public humiliation of him. It is absolutely humiliating as a police officer to be openly disrespected in front of other citizens, especially when the accusations are of racism.However, you can't make an arrest if you don't have a valid charge. And this is the crux of the whole incident. If Crowley had sucked it up and walked away, not only would the President not have commented on this, but it would be hard for Gates to make any sort of valid claim of mistreatment. In my state, the charge of disorderly conduct simply isn't applicable here. I have spoken with some of my lawyer friends about the Mass. version of the Disorderly Conduct law, and this arrest is very much on the fringe. Disorderly Conduct laws are open to wide interpretation, but in Mr. Gates' case, interpreting his conduct as "tumultuous" on his front porch is a pretty wide stretch of the law. I assume that this is why the charge was summarily dropped. Gates' behavior, no matter how inappropriate it may have appeared, does not qualify as Disorderly Conduct.

I don't mean to throw a fellow police officer under the bus, especially when I wasn't actually there to witness the incident, but I just can't see myself arresting an old man with a cane. As I have done before in the past, I would have just told him he was "out of his mind," driven away, and laughed about his outrageous behavior in the locker room later.

I have to agree with Mr. Collier's first post on this subject. This really seems to me to be about ego's, not racial profiling. This isn't about race at all, this is about "P.O.P." (Pissing Off Police). A person's demeanor goes a long way in swaying the outcome of an encounter with police. I myself have never made an unlawful arrest. But, in those cases where I do have a valid arrestable [sic] charge, I am more than happy to slap cuffs on anyone who shows blatant contempt for the law. But this just doesn't look like the case with Gates... and sometimes you just have to shrug off some undeserved disrespect.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Many commenter’s on the Gates affair, here and elsewhere, have said that the professor was too quick to take offense at the tone and manner of Officer Crowley’s approach, and perhaps they are correct. They ask why didn’t he just ignore police gruffness and ‘turn the other cheek’, or just say no big deal? For the record, this benefit of the doubt approach definitely has its merits, but it is not without its own costs, as my memory recalls.

Many years ago, I had the six-month occasion of a weekly Boston to SFO commute. One Monday morning at the ticket counter, I entered the first class and ‘Premier’ flyer line, behind at least five others, and ahead of more. At some point an agent surveyed the line, came around the counter, and approached me. Speaking only to me, she asked if I was either first class or premier status, and I answered yes. She then asked to see my premier card, which I showed her, whereupon she returned to the counter. She questioned no one ahead or behind me in line.

Now I did not have to wonder why she had singled me out of the group, as this ‘special treatment’ was nearly-typical for me over the 100,000 miles I logged that particular year, but that morning I decided that I should turn the other cheek. Besides, I had been through this drill so many times; frankly I was just too tired to mount a ‘campaign’ to set things straight, that day.

After about a minute had passed, the older gentleman directly in front of me, turned and gave me a stern lecture that was much more painful than the profiling of the ticket agent. He began by saying the agent had not asked anyone ahead of me for proof they were in the correct line. He asked me if I had realized that the agent had singled me out because I’m black, wherein I answered yes I had, but he wasn't done. Why do you let someone treat you this way young man? Do you not have self-respect for you or your people? You must stand-up for yourself or others will never have respect for you, he declared. Wow, body-slammed by an old white guy at 7 am!

I calmly beckoned the ticket agent to return and told her to retrieve her supervisor, as we needed to have a ‘chat’. When the supervisor arrived I tongue-lashed him good for the treatment by the agent. He took it well and apologized profusely, repeating that it was not company policy to single anyone out in this manner. I hoped that the supervisor would not object, as I sensed my instigator was ready to pounce in that instant. I accepted the apology and sent the two on their way. I then looked at the old white man, whose arms were still folded, but now under a smug-grin, and I said, “satisfied?” He nodded agreement and we went our separate ways. But I went away thinking I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t – and just perhaps this is a little of the maddening feeling that came over the good professor that day in Cambridge.

Monday, July 27, 2009

I just read A CNN article (here), where the attorney, Wendy Murphy, of the woman, Lucia Whalen, who made the 911 call on Professor Gates is emphatic that her client never spoke to Officer Crowley prior to Crowley's approach to the Gates house, as clearly stated in Crowley's police report of the incident. Crowley states in his report that she described two black men with backpacks forcing the door. Huh? The 911 taped showed that neither did the witness (Whalen) identify the men at the Gates door, other than to say they were large and one looked Hispanic. Hmmm... let's see, not black, no backpacks, no sidewalk conversation, and a 'concerned' 911. So the question is why fib the report? And what was he teaching in that academy racial-profiling class, exactly? (Your honor I object to that question - withdrawn). Now I'm not saying anybody is stupid or lying (that would be stupid), I'm just looking for a story that can stand up straight, OK?

Thursday, July 23, 2009

This post is not about race, it is about egos, and how they get the best of us.

Cambridge Sergeant James Crowley (pictured), whose side of the story I have now heard (on WEEI Boston) as well as that of Professor Gates (on CNN), made a decision to arrest Gates on a disorderly charge, when experience and judgment should have told him that this was a very bad move. This is not to say that Gates does not have an ego or a willingness to raise his voice. Crowley, by his own words, believes that hearing bad things about himself (or family) is part of police work. So why did he not just hand himself a favor and do the water-on-a-duck’s-back thing? One word - EGO.

Last summer I had a run-in with two Oakland cops, which was all about ego (not race), mine and theirs. The first officer nearly ran me, on my bicycle, off the road, while pursuing a speeder. Mind you, no lights, no siren, no pardon me move your narrow ass on the bull-horn, no nothing.

When I caught the cop and lucky speeder (who got off) a mile down the road, I started giving her a piece of my mind, undoubtedly in a raised “Gates style” voice. Meanwhile another cop rolls up and tells me I am interfering and he will arrest me. In my adrenaline-fueled state, I told him to F-off and that he could arrest me anytime he felt the need. I also told him it would be my pleasure to watch his duty officer, Captain and DA take turns reaming his private parts for compounding the other cop’s stupidity with his own brand. There was never any mention of race during the entire exchange.

Well, the punch line of this story is that just maybe the Oakland cops are smarter than Cambridge, because the reckless cop knew she was wrong almost running me over (she apologized), and regardless, the two of them thought it would be the lesser of evils to endure my tongue-lashing rather than what awaited them back at the precinct, after being arguably right and patently stupid to arrest me. Are you listening Cambridge? My encounter was about safety, emotion, adrenaline, ego and common sense – mine and theirs.

I’m glad the Oakland cops neither arrested nor shot me for my indignant stance. I was not proud of my behavior, but a life of marginalizing incidents by authority figures caught up to me as my life flashed before my eyes, and over the deep-end I went. I partly hoped the cops would be stupid enough to arrest me, and partly hoped they would be smart enough not to fall for the trap I was presenting. After all, I was out riding for some peace and enjoyment, I thought.

To put it succinctly, we have big issues in this country around race, and the Gates debacle and other daily occurrences go to remind us that we have a lot of work to do.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

There are three types of racial profiling that I am aware of: prelude, performance, and curtain. Prelude profiling is when the police stop you because of what they think you might be up to - a 'hunch'. Performance profiling is, once stopped, they treat you as if you have definitely done something illegal, despite obvious evidence to the contrary. Curtain profiling is what happens after you have been groundlessly detained, present no evidence of foul play, but nonetheless merit a parting shot to remind you who is in charge and to keep your nose even cleaner in the future.

Harvard Professor Skip Gates seems to be a victim of performance profiling, with a boneheaded dose of curtain profiling for good measure. The prelude profiling would be understandable, given the call-in description of two black men with back packs forcing open a front door. The performance profiling ignored the old well-dress man with a cane and proper ID, regardless of his temperament. The curtain profiling executed the ‘don’t no black man loud-talk me this way no matter who he thinks he is’ ignorant police response, whereby Gates is arrested and hand-cuffed.

While I suspect that black men have statistically attracted some lower level of prelude profiling given the crime statistics, and my own experience growing up in a black neighborhood. Black men HAVE NOT earned performance or curtain profiling, and the police need to be held accountable for this mistreatment. So if Gates wants a pound of flesh from the Cambridge Police, so be it.

Perhaps I feel this way partly due to my own profiling moments, of years past, still vivid. As a teenager I owned a late model Trans Am and suburban police would continually flash their beacon lights on me, to see if I would comply or initiate a stolen car chase, even though my car was not reported stolen. Once I pulled over they would turn off their lights and continue like nothing happened. In another incident, the entire Sausalito, CA on-duty police force showed up at my apartment because they ‘didn’t know me’. Lastly, I made the front page of the business section of the Boston Globe when the Mass. State Police detained my brother in-law and me as a drug smugglers because we fit the ‘profile’, black with light carry-on luggage from NYC (yes, that's what they said).

Some people will say that Gates over-reacted, but not me. I know, as does he, that whatever his treatment that day, it is a hell of a lot worse for many others, black, or poor, or just vulnerable, and not family with the guy with the badge and gun.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Here is what the NYT had to say about an incident where noted Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates was arrested at his home (and later released) by Cambridge Police who seem to have mistaken him for an intruder (here).

Of course, if we read between the lines, it seems that what Gates was really arrested for was giving the officer a healthy 'piece' of his mind, as the officer was leaving the Gates premises, exclusive campus housing provided by Harvard only to top professors.

No doubt that Gates thought the officer was derelict in his job performance, and we may never know exactly what transpired. However, I'm pretty sure that this was not a simple 'profiling' event. Anyone forcing open a door is reasonably suspect and should expect scrutiny. More to the issue, I can imagine a Cambridge officer in 'that' neighborhood, who does not recognize Gates, treating him poorly even after the no-crime is established.

Gates, who may have looked 'out of place' to the officer, deserves the same treatment as his similarly wealthy/scholarly white neighbors, and not getting this is probably the reason for his umbrage. That presumable white officer is learning a valuable lesson about the lottery for poorly choosing a black man to disrespect. It is rare, but it happens. And when it does, well, there goes the career.

Finally, it is good to take a moment to think about all the undeserving people who get mishandled or treated poorly by the authorities simply because the event is not going to end up on the front pages of the news.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Some commenter’s on this blog voiced their disapproval of Part I (here), on the grounds that external ills, historical and present-day, outweigh the damage of self-indulging counter-cultured behavior. And some thought that I was squeezing hard to wring anything telling out of youthful slow-walking (sauntering) of the crosswalk and a little ‘harmless’ traffic disruption.

Despite my intention to let it rest, here I go again. Some of you know that I volunteered mentoring time to minority high school students in Oakland this recent school semester. One of the notable students was a black boy who seemed bright, but who the teacher said would probably flunk the 11th grade because of truancy. She also questioned if he would eventually graduate.

So imagine my surprise today in seeing this same young man ‘sauntering’ in the crosswalk before me, as I patiently sat at a light near downtown Oakland. When the light changed, his pace remained slow, but his attention turned to the nearest drivers, as Oakland is not Berkeley and some driver just might ‘accidentally’ make him into a hood ornament.

All this is to suggest that there is some level of correlation between the attitude of black males on the street and in the classroom, or at home (for that matter), as my parents suspected. They expected me to go about my day with assertive purpose, even if that purpose was just hanging out. Acting as an obstacle to others was, at minimum, practicing to be an obstacle to one’s own self. That was my point with the earlier post and I am sticking to it.

I will hopefully see that young man next fall, as I have not given up on him. I have a few months to come up with a more persuasive reason why he should put his young (academic) life in gear and step on the gas.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I was driving from Berkeley the other morning, heading for Oakland, when ethnicity presented a mini-performance right there in the crosswalk. The 'actors' were a young white woman, three teenage black youths (male), followed by an older white man. They were crossing in the same direction at a stop light of a four lane downtown parkway, with a center divider.

As I came to a stop in front of the crosswalk, the walk-signal beckoned the pedestrians. The white woman led off, followed by the three black youths. The white man brought up the rear, as he was tardy to the initial signal. The woman’s pace was exactly in sync to the amount of time she had to get to the other side. The white man moved in double time, to make up for his late start.

The only way to describe the pace of the black boys was as exaggerated sauntering. Now this sauntering is no problem in and of itself, but when combined with traffic it creates a problem. By the time the signal had expired, the three had only made it to the center island, but this was of no matter to them. They continued at the same pace (against the signal) through the second half of their crossing, even while traffic backed up. Long after the white woman and man were safely across, the three innocent-looking black man-boys held-up traffic, with their drooping pants, sideways caps, and no-concern attitudes.

As I watched this, my thoughts swirled about the futures of these boys, beginning with the grounding my mom or dad would have given me, if they had ever gotten a report of such behavior from me. I wondered how these boys would ever convince anyone, black, white or otherwise, to take a chance on them for that first job to jump start a future, where moving fast, when you don’t have to, is the difference between success and failure.

At that crosswalk, I was sad for their plight at the hands of their own obliviousness. But that’s just it, they were not oblivious! Their control and disruption of that intersection was very purposeful, and, sadly, an exercise of the most control (perhaps) they may ever experience in their ‘day late-dollar short’ lives. Yes, I was very sad that my delay of a few minutes was but a minuscule moment next to the self-imposed limitations of these young men.

Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Now here is a phrase that should be in the vocabulary of every black girl/women, boy/man.

When I first saw this phrase, I did a double-take. I have written before (here) about the role black woman and sex have in the current depressed plight of blacks. But to see these powerful words out of the mouths of black women, in this manner, definitely rocked me. I have never before witnessed the point made so clearly and razor sharp.

“It is unfortunate that most black girls are not being taught to view unplanned pregnancy and premature motherhood as an abuse of reproductive power.” blackwomenblowthetrumpet.com

Juxtapose this with the idea that black empowerment historically focuses on the power that blacks want to have, in the future, versus that which is within their control, today, and you have quite a mix. The above blog site, authored by Lisa Vasquez, goes right to the issue of that which black women do today with their bodies, and how it directly determines the behavior of black men, and the plight of the 70% of children born out of wedlock to these men.

I was shaken to learned of motherhood idolatry, whereby birthing babies takes on a cultural rite of passage for black girls/women, regardless of their ability to secure support. Furthermore, I have come to understand the pride, described therein as misplaced, in which black women praise themselves in the rearing of off-spring, minus the presence of black males.

It is not hyperbole to believe that this pivotal decision, about when and if a new black child should come into the world, has the single greatest impact on the current position and advancement progress of blacks as a group. Visit the site and judge for yourself, it's a keeper.

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